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墨書 Inktalez
I was startled, but beside me, Zhao Mingkun suddenly grabbed my hand. This eased my mind a bit; with Zhao Mingkun around, I felt there was nothing we couldn't handle. We leaned to one side and brushed past the group of police officers. At that moment, my heart felt like it was about to leap out of my throat.
Zhao Mingkun held onto me as we descended step by step. Neither of us looked back, but we dared not walk too quickly for fear of arousing the officers' suspicions. The ten steps felt like they stretched for light-years. Finally, we managed to pass the police, but just then, one officer placed a hand on my shoulder.
Zhao Mingkun and I stopped. I felt Zhao Mingkun's grip tighten, while his other hand slipped into his pocket.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"Is this the building where the report came from?" one officer inquired. "This area doesn't have unit numbers; we've already checked two buildings."
I nodded, my voice a bit tense. "That's right. I heard someone died; my wife was too scared to stay there, so we hurried down. There’s a crowd upstairs, and we don’t know what’s going on."
"Thank you," the officer said.
I replied, "Isn't that what we're here for—to serve the people?"
The moment I stepped out of the building, I realized my back was completely soaked. I could also feel the sweat in Zhao Mingkun's palm. As he said, fleeing wasn't a graceful affair at all. Every moment of escape was filled with anxiety.
Just when I thought I could breathe a little easier, another hand landed on my shoulder. Turning around, I saw it was the middle-aged man who had been arguing with Hu Pei's mother earlier. Anger surged within me as I said, "Please don't touch my shoulder again. No matter how rude you are, just don't touch me!"
The middle-aged man ignored my words and continued, "Officer, I've been waiting for you downstairs for quite a while. I knew Hu Pei wasn't a good person; this family will eventually get their comeuppance. Back then, I told you..."
I glanced back at the building and suggested, "This isn't the place for a discussion. How about we find somewhere quieter to talk?"
Zhao Mingkun parked the motorcycle in an alley, and we entered a café. Once the man started speaking, it seemed he had no intention of stopping. From our conversation, we learned that this middle-aged man in his forties was named Zhang.
Zhang **** and Hu Pei grew up together, but Zhang **** was three years older than Hu Pei. From a young age, Zhang **** was known as the exemplary child, excelling in academics and displaying politeness in interactions. In contrast, Hu Pei was mischievous and his academic performance was lackluster.
The neighbors believed that Zhang **** would surely be accepted into Dongxing University, while it would be a great achievement for Hu Pei to get into high school. However, what followed surprised everyone. For three consecutive years, Zhang ****'s scores fell just short of the admission cutoff for Dongxing University. With his grades, he could have attended other universities, but Dongxing University, being one of the top institutions in the country, was the dream of many.
In their fourth year, both Zhang **** and Hu Pei took the college entrance examination.
They both applied to Dongxing University. While everyone expected Zhang **** to finally succeed this time, he once again failed to gain admission. On the other hand, Hu Pei managed to enter Dongxing University's School of Architecture with a score three points above the cutoff. This allowed Hu Pei to hold his head high.
It turned out that during his senior year, Hu Pei had started dating a girl. While most people saw their grades drop when they entered relationships, Hu Pei's performance improved with this girlfriend by his side. She was not only academically capable but also attractive. The two of them were inseparable and studied together, setting a common goal: to get into Dongxing University.
Ultimately, they achieved their goal and both got into university.
This woman, Hu Pei's girlfriend, was the same woman who died on the construction site.
Although Zhang ****'s words dripped with envy and jealousy towards Hu Pei, I chose not to break this unspoken tension.
Zhang **** took a sip of coffee and said, "I really don't know what Hu Pei did during his four years at university. But during that time, he was still involved with that girl. It must have been about seven years ago when they both interned at a construction site together. I think they were managing something related to tower cranes. Unfortunately, due to some safety issues, that girl fell."
"I don't know exactly what happened, but I heard she died a terrible death," Zhang **** continued with an expression as if he had swallowed a fly. "The tower crane was over a hundred meters high; she fell straight from the top onto barbed wire and was cut into several pieces. I heard her eyeballs even popped out."
I frowned. From the image I had seen on my phone earlier, it indeed showed a dismembered body; however, the angle of the photo was too distant to clearly see how many pieces it had been cut into. But we could make out the features of the corpse. From what I could tell about the head of the body, there were no obvious signs of injuries from such a high fall.
"Did you know that woman?" I asked. "The one who was Hu Pei's girlfriend."
Zhang nodded and said, "I came here once during the winter break, and at that time, we were already discussing marriage. But after this incident, everything just fell apart. The Hu family seems to act as if they never knew such a person existed, not saying a word about it. Is this the attitude that the man's family should have?"
Zhang took a furious sip of coffee and continued, "The safety inspection was supposedly handled by Hu Pei and his team. It was an accident, but what if they did something wrong? Later, the construction site paid over a million, and the insurance covered another million. Part of it went to the woman's family, while some ended up in Hu Pei's hands."
"You!" Zhang frowned. "Isn't there something fishy about this? If someone dies, compensation goes to their family; how can there be compensation for the man's side too? That seems strange. Later, the woman's family even caused a scene at Hu Pei's home, demanding money and such. I just feel like there's more to this story."
Zhao Mingkun took a gentle sip of coffee and asked, "A safety officer on a construction site can't just be one architect; there must be quite a few people involved. Hu Pei was only in his twenties back then and still interning; he wouldn't have been given full responsibility. There must have been others who knew about this."
Zhang looked at Zhao Mingkun and shook his head. "I’m not too sure about that. Anyway, I think Hu Pei is definitely involved. He’s always been sneaky; people can tell from a young age that he’s not trustworthy. You should check for yourselves."
I asked, "Do you have any leads? Do you know the woman's name, appearance, or age? Who else knew about this back then?"
"I don’t know," Zhang shook his head. "But you could ask at Dongxing University."
"That’s possible; thank you for your cooperation," I replied.
As we left the café, Zhao Mingkun looked at me and said, "I don't trust a single punctuation mark of what Zhang said."
I nodded in agreement and said, "It's clear that Zhang is quite envious and resentful of Hu Pei. Most of what he said is just his subjective opinion. While speaking, he kept looking down with a slight frown on his lips. It’s obvious he has disdain for mentioning Hu Pei. However, if we set aside these subjective views and focus on what Zhang described, we might still find some clues."
"What clues?" Zhao Mingkun asked.
I replied, "Zhang couldn't have been at the construction site at that time, so he wouldn't know how that woman died. The safety issue might be real, but falling from the Tower Crane may not be true. The body being shattered is real, but being cut by barbed wire isn’t necessarily true. The eyeball falling out is real, but being shaken out might be false."
I shook my head. "In short, Zhang provided at least one correct and useful clue."
"Do you know the identity of the deceased?" Zhao Mingkun asked.
I snapped my fingers. "This is something Zhang can't lie about. Moreover, judging from Hu Pei's reaction earlier, it seems that Zhang has touched upon Hu Pei's pain. We can find student information on the Dongxing University official website. Let's start by checking Hu Pei's classmates; if they were a couple, someone must know something."
Zhao Mingkun nodded, hopped on his motorcycle, and suddenly laughed. "It looks like we're getting tangled up in this matter. Or perhaps this matter is tangling us up. I wonder if we can find any information about your girlfriend from this case. I feel like we're drifting further away."
I sighed. "Let's investigate. Besides investigating, what else do you think we can do?"
Zhao Mingkun paused for a moment and replied, "Yeah, it's either being investigated or investigating others."
"If we step out of this circle," I said, "I really don't know what else I could do."
"Let's go," Zhao Mingkun said. "We need to find a Black Internet Cafe."
"Black?" I was about to ask why we needed to go to a Black Internet Cafe when suddenly I remembered something and couldn't help but laugh.
A student once picked up an ID card from the ground to use at an internet cafe, and within five minutes, seven or eight armed police surrounded him. The student was so scared he wet his pants, only to later realize that the ID belonged to a fugitive.
Without an identity, hiding everywhere, even death would go unnoticed.
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